The ACT's electoral legislation is enacted by the ACT Legislative Assembly under the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988, which is a Commonwealth Act. The following is a link through ComLaw, which is the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney General's Department:

The Justice and Community Safety Amendment Act 2015 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 5 May 2015, with amendments commencing on 21 May 2015. This Act amended section 243(3) of the Electoral Act to provide that annual disclosure returns submitted under division 14.6 must be made available for public inspection by 7 September after the end of the financial year to which the return relates. Before this amendment was made, annual returns were required to be published from the beginning of September.

This amendment was consequential on amendments to the Electoral Act contained in the Electoral Amendment Act 2015, which extended the deadline for annual disclosure return lodgement from 31 July to 31 August in each year, commencing in 2015. The amendment to section 243(3) requires the Electoral Commissioner to publish details included in annual returns 7 days after the due date for the submission of returns.

The Electoral Amendment Act 2015 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 19 February 2015. The Act provides for a range of amendments to the election funding and disclosure provisions in the Electoral Act 1992, including:

The removal of the $10,000 cap on donations for ACT election purposes;

The removal of the restriction on receiving donations for ACT election purposes from organisations and persons not enrolled in the ACT;

An increase in election funding for parties and non-party candidates from $2 per vote to $8 per vote at the 2016 ACT Assembly election;

A decrease in the electoral expenditure cap to $40,000 per candidate and third party campaigner for an election held in 2016, compared to a $60,000 cap at the 2012 election;

Changes to the timing for the regular reporting of gifts;

An extension to the deadline for submission of annual returns by political participants, so that annual returns must be provided to the Electoral Commissioner no later than 31 August each year, increasing the timeframe by a month.

More detail on the changes made by the Electoral Amendment Act 2015 can be found on this website under funding and disclosure.

On 5 August 2014 the ACT Legislative Assembly voted to increase the size of the Assembly to 25 Members from the 2016 election, consisting of 5 electorates each returning 5 Members. This will be the first increase in the size of the Assembly, which has consisted of 17 Members since its establishment in 1989.

The Assembly passed two enactments on 5 August 2014 to give effect to this increase in the size of the Assembly. The Australian Capital Territory (Legislative Assembly) Act2014 provides that the Legislative Assembly will consist of 25 Members to be elected at the next general election held after commencement of the Act. The next ACT election is scheduled to be held on 15 October 2016. This Act was supported unanimously by all 17 Members of the Assembly.

The Electoral Amendment Act 2014 amends the Electoral Act 1992 to provide that the ACT must be divided into 5 electorates, with 5 members to be elected from each electorate. This Act also makes consequential amendments to the Electoral Act to remove references to 7 member electorates. This Act was supported by 16 of the 17 Members of the Assembly, with support from all ACT Labor and Canberra Liberals MLAs, and with The ACT Greens MLA Mr Shane Rattenbury voting against.

The Officers of the Assembly Legislation Amendment Act 2013 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 24 October 2013. This Act amends the Electoral Act 1992 and other machinery of government legislation to establish the Members of the ACT Electoral Commission as Officers of the Assembly. It also makes amendments to relevant legislation to establish the ACT Auditor-General and the ACT Ombudsman as Officers of the Assembly. This Act commenced on 1 July 2014.

The Statute Law Amendment Act 2013 (No 2) was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly on 29 October 2013. This Act updated two sections and the Dictionary in the Electoral Act 1992 to make technical amendments to update language in line with current legislative drafting practice.

Lowering the age of entitlement to provisionally enrol to vote from 17 years old to 16 years old, to bring the ACT into line with recent changes to Commonwealth entitlements (the requirement that an elector be 18 years old before they can vote is not affected);

Providing for the return of a candidate’s deposit to the person who paid it, or to a person authorised in writing by the person who paid it;

Providing that the certified list of electors used in polling places contain the year of birth and gender of each elector, to assist in correctly identifying electors as they vote, and providing that the extract of the certified list of electors provided to candidates will not contain the year of birth and gender of electors in order to protect their privacy;

Allowing the Electoral Commissioner to provide the extract of the certified list of electors to candidates in electronic form on request (previously only printed copies were provided);

Removing the requirement for a person to sign as witness when a voter is casting a postal vote; and

Providing flexibility to the Electoral Commissioner as to where the word “declaration” is to be printed in relation to the words “ballot paper” on declaration ballot papers.

The Amendment Act also made consequential amendments to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Act 2008, which applies various provisions of the Electoral Act to the conduct of elections for the Elected Body.

This Act updated various sections in the Electoral Act 1992 to make a range of technical amendments, including amendments to update language in line with current legislative drafting practice, and amendments resulting from recent changes to the Legislation Act 2001.

This Act updated various sections in the Electoral Act 1992 to replace references to 'chief executive' with references to 'director-general' as a consequence of the changes made to the ACT Public Service legislation.

This Act updated section 232 of the Electoral Act 1992 to replace a reference to the Liquor Act 1975 with a reference to the Liquor Act 2010, in relation to details of amounts received to be included in annual returns submitted by associated entities under section 231B of the Electoral Act.

Removing the provision for non-party groups to be listed on ballot papers;

Reducing all the thresholds for disclosure of political donations and expenditure to $1000 from 1 July 2008, to bring the ACT disclosure scheme into line with proposed changes to the Commonwealth disclosure scheme;

Allowing electors to apply for postal votes by phone, email, internet, fax or post, without the need for a signature or a witness;

Providing that an elector is not eligible to apply for a postal vote if they are able to attend at a pre-poll voting centre in the ACT before polling day;

Simplifying the requirements for authorisation of published electoral material (see fact sheet);

Extending the right to enrol and vote to all ACT prisoners otherwise entitled to enrol (before this change, prisoners under sentence for 3 years or more were not eligible to enrol or vote for ACT elections);

Providing that an application for registration of a political party that includes the name of a person in the party’s name must include a statement signed by that person indicating the person's consent to the party name;

Providing that it is an offence to take a photo of a person’s marked ballot paper so as to violate the secrecy of the ballot; and

The main purpose of this Act is to establish the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. Its goal is to ensure maximum participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the ACT in the formulation, co-ordination and implementation of government policies that affect them. The ACT Electoral Commission is responsible for the conduct of elections for the Elected Body. For more information on this election, see the 2008 ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Election page.

Remove from the Electoral Act all references to the ability of independent MLAs to register ballot groups; and

Provide that it will be an offence to induce a person to complete a postal vote application form and return it to an address other than that authorised by the Electoral Commissioner.

The Electoral Amendment Regulations 2004 (No 1) were notified under the Legislation Act 2001 on 16 February 2004. These amendments to the Electoral Regulation 1993 were intended to provide that publications of ACT government agencies that contained the "building our city, building our community" logo would not be required to include an electoral authorisation statement if the publications included electoral matter. On Thursday 11 March 2004 the ACT Legislative Assembly passed a resolution that the Electoral Amendment Regulations 2004 (No 1) be disallowed. The amendment regulations were taken to be repealed on Thursday 18 March 2004 because of the resolution.

The Electoral Amendment Bill 2003 (No 2) was introduced into the Assembly by the Attorney-General, Jon Stanhope MLA, on 20 November 2003 and was passed as the Electoral Amendment Act 2003 in the Assembly on 27 November 2003. This legislation extends the term of office for Members of the Legislative Assembly from three years to four years, starting from the 2004 election. This change follows a recommendation from the ACT Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, to which the ACT Electoral Commission made a submission.

The following Government bills were tabled in the Assembly on 29 March 2001. These bills were passed, with amendments, on 15 June 2001. This legislation made a number of changes, including increasing the number of Robson rotations and changing enrolment, nomination, party registration and disclosure provisions.